


Even the Odds

by LilyTheRose



Category: Bendy and the Ink Machine, Lego Ninjago
Genre: Alice is just Susie, Angst with a Happy Ending, Bendy can talk, F/M, Family, Fluff, Friendship, Redemption, my first attempt at 3rd-person-omnipresent narrator, sarcastic Nya
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-15
Updated: 2021-02-15
Packaged: 2021-03-17 10:08:17
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 9,948
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29469966
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LilyTheRose/pseuds/LilyTheRose
Summary: The Ninjas of Ninjago are hardly threatened by the spooky happenings of the Joey Drew Studios. That is until the studio starts fighting back with some inky power of it's own. Of course, said vessels of inky power have mixed reactions about it.
Relationships: Nya/Jay Walker, P.I.X.A.L./Zane (Ninjago), Susie Campbell/Sammy Lawrence
Kudos: 3
Collections: The_Newbie's Ninjago Fanfic Collection





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> I always figured the real reason Henry got tossed around like a rag doll was 1) He was alone and 2) he had no superpowers like Bendy. One thought led to another and

“I still think we saw something,” Jay shuddered, still picturing the strange, inky grin that had emerged from the flood of ink- mostly because he was the only one to get a good look at it.

“No one’s been here for thirty years, Jay!” Cole argued, becoming increasingly aware how close it was to lunch time.

The ninjas of Ninjago, Jay, Cole, Zane, Kai, Nya, and Lloyd, had gone to investigate the abandoned yet inky Joey Drew Studios to account for the rumors of ghosts and possibly even demons. Finding it empty (although Jay would protest) they had tried to leave, but found the door locked from the outside. In fact, the wooden floorboards around the door had suddenly given way, which may have been a real threat if it were not for the fact they all were well-practiced in airjitzu.

Fortunately, a staircase with another door was found. Unfortunately, none of them were ink elementals, and it took a bit of puzzling (and a direct history lesson about the studio’s glory days though abandoned audio logs) to find a way to drain a flooded staircase. They were just leaving the ‘sanctuary’ of the former music director, Sammy Lawrence, when inky, groaning creatures burst out of stains on the floor, and charged toward the ninja. They resembled humans, but with longer, thinner limbs, and no legs except a bubbling puddle of ink beneath them. They disappeared into droplets of ink in a wave of reflexive fire, lightning, earth, energy, and two forms of water.

“Jay might have been right,” Nya admitted with a blink of surprise. But Jay didn’t react to the praise.

“Jay?” Kai asked. Jay shakily pointed up the projector booth. Cole was the first to spot a man in the flickering light of the projector, covered in ink and wearing a Bendy mask in the shadows already full of the image. Cole reacted first, but Lloyd held up a hand to stop him.

“He’s not attacking.”

“Just staring at us, it appears,” Zane noted.

“MENACINGLY!” Jay said. He wasn’t entirely wrong.

The man didn’t seem to react to the outburst, but after a moment, he turned and disappeared.

“That was a human,” Jay whisper-shouted.

“We’ll have to bump into him in the hall,” Nya said, remapping the near doorways in her mind.

“And he might have some answers,” Lloyd concluded. “Let’s go.” With enough eyes to make another sneak attack from the dormant puddles impossible, it was easy to get back out of the band room. It paid to work as a team.

* * *

Alice prided herself in her independence. It wasn’t always easy, but she kept a firm hand on her domain, and a close eye on everything else inside the walls of the studio. As always, the ink demon was a thorn in her side, avoiding her cameras by slinking around the shadows of ink he knew she wouldn’t touch. But other than him, Alice knew the routines and habits of everyone. She watched Allison and her imperfect Boris with contempt, the backstabbers always staying just out of her jurisdiction. She routinely sicced searchers on the Butcher gang to keep their breed of ink out, and occasionally let herself check up on her old love, Sammy. It was really a blight on her record- she was always disappointed by the man’s embarrassing infatuation with the ink demon. Perhaps she just wanted to keep an eye out so his deranged ideas wouldn’t get him killed.

But one day, a colorful group of six unlike any she had seen before- certainly not something the ink could make- appeared on the ground floor. They had made surprisingly short work of some stray Searchers in Sammy’s home base. Either there had been a bizarre interruption in the camera’s feed, or the ink demon had supplied these… people… with some remarkable abilities. Alice considered, like with many things, the new faces could be a benefit in the long run, but for now it was wisest to observe.

When the ninjas trodded into the hall, floorboards groaning and ink splatting and oozing under their feet, they found it was…  
“Anyone else getting the feeling it’s too quiet?” Lloyd asked.

“No. Not at all,” Cole said quickly, still jumpy at the possibility of phantoms.

“Kai’s right,” Nya said.

“And if Nya admits it, it has to be true.”

“I saw no other pathways for our mystery man to journey though,” Zane said, scanning the room curiously. “Unless he stopped before coming in here, which is unlikely.”

“Yeah, yeah, let’s just get to the pump switch,” Cole grumbled, spinning stones in the air like a fidget.

Clang! Cole’s rocks moved behind his head in the nick of time, deflecting a hard, metal dust pan swung at it.

“Hey, what gives?” he shouted behind him, then immediately recoiled. It was the ink man, who seemed startled by the quick defense, but recovering.

“You will, my little sheep,” he replied in a low, slightly echoing voice. He moved to swing again and the ninja lept to defend Cole. The man had considerable vigor in the face of fire (some literal) and kept swinging furiously, his mask nearly coming off.

“Wait a second…” Nya muttered to herself. She raised a bubble of water above the flurry of energy, then dropped it over the man. He stopped, sputtering. The ink didn’t expose any human face like she expected, but Nya became more certain she recognised the voice from a few grouchy recordings. “Sammy Lawrence?” she asked.

“What?” Kai asked, his shoot of flame stopping in mid air. He glanced back at the man. “You may be right, Sis. What happened to him?”

Sammy caught his breath, still clutching the dust pan. He adjusted his mask and posture with a slight chuckle that gave Jay the jeebies.

“I’ve found the true purpose. The way to set us free, thanks to your sacrifice, my sheep.” Taking advantage of the ninja’s pause, he swung once more at Lloyd, who had gotten too close.

“Ice!” Zane struck his foot against the ground, throwing ice into a wide dome around Sammy, trapping him inside. This only seemed to anger the ink man, who began to beat furiously against the barrier. Cracks ran out threateningly.

“Earth!” Cole shouted, doubling down on the wall in a rough criss-cross pattern. The sound of metal beating against the ice was muffled but not completely muted.

“What was that!?” Jay exclaimed after a second of listening. “And what was with the sheep thing? It felt very insulting.”

“Pixal has found he seems to suffer from hallucinations and memory loss,” Zane explained, his blue eyes locked on the barrier, where only Sammy’s outline could be seen.

“Which means?” Lloyd asked.

“He doesn’t know who we are or who he is and can’t be held fully responsible for his actions.”

“Of course, the guy who just tried to ‘sacrifice’ us can’t be blamed,” Cole grumbled, pulling up his shoulders defensively to hide the shudder that ran down his spine.

“There must be something going on down here after all,” Kai said.

“I knew it,” Jay muttered under his breath.

“You knew it,” Nya said, smirking even as she patted his shoulder.

“What are we supposed to do now? Leave him in there?” Kai asked skeptically, motioning back at the makeshift cage, which had gradually quieted.

“But what if he breaks out?” Nya asked with an uncertain glance toward the door.

“And what if he doesn't?” Lloyd asked ominously. The ninjas were silent. They always avoided casualties as much as they could, certainly in cases where some innocence might be involved.

“He has a metal pan and the air supply for a few hours, so it would be logical to put distance between us and trust he will make it out still animated,” Zane analyzed.

“Guess the exit will have to wait,” Lloyd said. Together, the ninja tightened their belts and ventured deeper into the studio, to flood, push, burn, freeze, and/or shock it’s secrets into the open.


	2. Chapter 2

The footsteps were fading- unless he was hearing things again. With a scream of frustration, Sammy beat his fists against the cold wall. One cross of rock over his head cracked. He flinched, stepping away from the wall, but the ice held and the rock crumbled to the floor. He swallowed his fear and worked at a crack in the ice, shame still burning his face despite the chill in the air.

“Forgive me, ink demon,” he murmured. Such a sacrifice lost was an incredible waste. He had never seen such… unique creatures, and they were clearly more powerful than many in the studio- not that they could compare to lord Bendy.

A chill was creeping through the ink, and he was losing his breath faster and faster, having to stop his work again and again. He sat down to rest, rubbing his arms and wishing he still had a shirt.

The simple memory brought him back for a moment, back to before he was this, before he knew of the ink demon….

“Sammy? Sammy, are you okay?” The small break in the ice made her voice clear enough to recognize.

“Susie?” he mumbled, still in the distant dream world.

“Alice,” she reminded impatiently but without skipping a beat. “Stand back.”

Sammy did so, and an ax cleanly split the crack in the ice open wide enough for him to step though.

“Are you all- Sammy!” Alice grabbed his suspenders and pulled him out of the way as the unstable structure crumbled, throwing shredded ice and dirt in their faces.

“Oh- Now look what you’ve done!” Alice exclaimed, examining her dress.

“This is my fault?” Sammy asked incredulously. With the ease of adrenaline and air back in his lungs, he quickly remembered her less than perfect history. She kept to herself, save for abducting souls, including some of Sammy’s followers.

“Yes, your fault,” she snapped back. “You’d never get into these messes if you didn’t insist on following that abomination-”

“Don’t you dare use that word!” Sammy shouted.

Alice just gave him a look, even the side of her face that couldn't show emotions anymore looking unimpressed.

There was awkward rest in speech. Heretic or not, she had probably saved him a painful trip through the cycle.

“Why did you do that, anyway?” he asked, not sure what had been spoken out loud and what had been in his own head. Alice could understand either way, although Sammy didn’t know why she looked discouraged. She rubbed the back of her neck with a thin, stained hand. Her voice, which maintained it’s rhythm and flow even when she was angry, became pinched.

“I saw those… creatures might have been a threat, and knew you might need help.”

“And what were you doing coming here at all?” Sammy asked. She had just as much reason to avoid him as he had to avoid her.

“You two will be helping me even the odds.”

Alice whipped around, and Sammy hurriedly fell to his knees. The ink demon rose out of a leak in a pipe, towering over them in all his inky power.

“What do you want?” Alice hissed behind clenched teeth.

“Alice!” Sammy whisper-shouted back at her. They may not have been on the best terms, but he didn’t want her maimed. Again.

“Relax, Sammy,” the ink demon said with a wave of his ungloved hand. Sammy fell silent. “I already said,” he answered, turning back to Alice.

She made her hands in fists at her sides, but she was shaking, being so close to the kind of ink that could kill her in a second.

“Those ‘creatures’ you noticed are called ninjas,” the ink demon explained. “And they could upset the way of things around here…”

“Your way of things,” Alice spat with contempt.

“So good of you to finally notice,” the demon chuckled cruelly. “Now, if you’d be so kind once more…” Sammy looked up at this. Alice could sense his eyes widening with attentiveness and hope, even behind the mask. The ink demon raises both clawed and gloved hands, the ink pooled around him stretching up in tentacles. Sammy took the silent invitation to stand, but Alice stepped back. The tentacles snapped toward them suddenly. Alice screamed as her arms and middle burned where the ink constricted around them.

“It’s nothing to be afraid of, Alice! We will be leaders for-” Sammy’s voice was choked out as ink curled around his head, covering him entirely like a dark cocoon.

“Let me go, you beast!” Alice shouted, kicking furiously, even as ink covered her shoes in a way that would’ve made her shudder in a safer hour.

“Just consider it a little gift…” the ink demon chuckled, as darkness flooded Alice’s senses. Almost laughable the ninja had seemed like a threat.

But the pain did disappear rather quickly. Alice couldn’t feel her hands, feet, or face, but in a restful, not a paralyzing way. In absolute stillness, she didn’t feel the need for air very badly…

Until she was thrust back into the light. She gasped and spat, thrashing to find something to grab onto and pull herself out of the ink. Her hands found splintering hard floor, as she was washed up in a shallow pool of ink. She scrambled out, madly flicking ink off of her, trying to regain her breath and looking around frantically for Sammy. She tried to yell curses at the ink demon, but was too busy trying to force out the ink before it drowned her from the inside out.

“Don’t get so cut up, dollface.” The ink demon’s voice echoed as he slithered out of sight, pulling his ink with him. Alice glared, then let him go. As her lungs filled with air, she looked back down at herself. Miraculously, her skin was as free of ink as it had been before leaving her homebase. She gasped, putting a hard against her chest as it suddenly pinched and twisted, the liquid seeping into her bones. Oh, no. The truth slashed into her like the task had been done with the implementation of the ink demon’s claws. The ink was inside her, permanently, if she knew anything about the ink demon. Immediately, she started pulling everything she knew together, to make sure she could still hear her own thoughts.

My name is Alice Angel. The ink demon has done something to me. I just came out of the ink. I came out here to help Sammy.

Sammy! Where was he? Alice stood up, nearly caving with how badly she shivered with cold and nerves.

Sammy had been left the same as she had, washed up, physically looking the same as before. Even his mask had no additional wear or tear. He was shaking as well, but a smile was exposed where his mask had been knocked out of place.

“Are you okay?” Alice asked, offering her hand to help pull him up and out. She only realised how abnormal the gesture was until she had helped him to his feet. She never dared to touch Sammy, however much she missed it, lest she be infected by whatever had made him what he was now. Every dark cloud had a silver lining, she supposed, at least she didn’t have to worry about avoiding the ink any longer. It couldn't do anything more. Of course, that begged the question: What had it done?

“I don’t look different, do I?” Alice asked, touching her face and fighting not to blur her words together. Sammy shook his head, only half in response to her. He adjusted his mask to see clearly, and his gaze bounced from Alice, to himself, to the ink they came out of, and back around again.

“Unbelievable. Unbelievable!” he laughed, shaking his head in shock and delight.

“My words exactly,” Alice grumbled, quickly over her sense of wonder and nostalgia. She realised with chagrin she might have to listen to Sammy; He has a better practical idea of what happens when one is submerged in ink. Sammy followed her thoughts, either out of instinctual memories of their shared past or through the ink bridging their minds by force.

“Don’t you understand?” he asked excitedly, taking both her hands in his. Alice’s eyebrows raised in the surprise of friendly touch, which was dampened slightly by his next words. “We have been appointed to be the ink demon’s missionaries! His warriors! I can already feel it, he- he…”

“He what?” Alice exclaimed, losing touch in his euphoria. Sammy let go, leaving ink droplets on her hands. She cringed, and they bunched together like water, touching less of her skin.

Her eyes fell curiously from Sammy, who was very much in his own world, to the ink. She had always known it to cling, to try to drag her back. But these droplets pulled together, increasing their own weight, then dripped cleanly off her hands, leaving nothing but a slight chill behind. Gears began to turn in her mind as she glanced back at Sammy. He stood in front of a puddle of ink, his feet and hands spread out in his typical, dramatic stance for anything Bendy-related. He lifted his arms slightly, looking remarkably like a conductor again, and shapes lifted out of the ink.

Alice’s breath caught in her throat. She didn’t dare hope he remembered- that there would be there was a chance of breaking out of here…. But it was sweet to see him trying to make music again. A drum, a bass, and a banjo shaped themselves and hardened, forming a shiny, black band. Sammy took a deep breath, breathing in the picture and emotions that came with it. He found his words.

“We will be the inks’….”

“Angel?” Alice guessed, a smile tugging at her mouth.

“Yes!” he cried, turning around and beaming at her. “And its’ prophet and its’- its’ director!” He took her hands again, and she was sure- though instinct or ink, she felt his excitement melt into genuine happiness. Truly, she didn’t care how. The dark burning turned to soft warmth that penetrated Sammy’s cold hands. With a small, hopeful smile and a deep breath, she closed her eyes and let the voices in the ink flow through her mind. When she opened her eyes, a small plush of Alice angel’s hovered unassumingly in midair. Alice put a hand to her mouth, covering a smile. She didn’t dare make too much noise, less the ink demon caught onto her. But she let her joy shine, small and dimly, like a halo. Just enough to be seen. Sammy smiled back.

Nothing about this was ideal, but Alice hadn't given up hope of survival and more. By whatever means, she, now they, had a solid change to make that hope come to life. Of course, she cringed a little at this thought. It sounded too much like something Drew would say. But that didn’t make it less true. The angel and the prophet, the actress and the composer, were working together again.

“The tape is still going- WHY is the tape still going!?” Cole shouted, trying to keep his voice even. The studio was truly enormous, and the ninjas found themself in a failed theme park before being forced to a stop by a door that locked from the outside. A tape from a certain Bertie who seemed to have quite the ability to hold a grudge made an unmuffleable noise which was rising quickly in the giant octopus ride in the center of the closed-in room. It’s limbs began to twitch and grind as the tape grew loud.

“You may THINK I’m gone, but I’m STILL HERE!” The ride spun into a frenzy, determined to catch a stray body in its path.

“NINJA-GO!” The ninjas sprung into action, surrounding the demented ride and seeking out it’s weak points- bulky nails on the joints. Like the cheap pieces of metal they were, the arms and seats fell off, and the doors in the center closed a moment after they had opened, sealing the creepy face away.

“Everybody okay?” Lloyd called from where he stood at the top of the ride.

“Hah! Too easy!” Jay laughed, as if he hadn’t screamed like the first blast of a child’s recorder when the machine whirred to life.

“But it would’ve killed anyone else,” Nya deduced. “Either we aren't expected at all, or-”

“Don’t jinx it!” Jay exclaimed.

“Or it’s going to get harder, Jay,” she said flatly.

“Nya is right. This studio clearly has not had its’, to borrow the expression, ‘fair share’ of experience on spinjitzu,” Zane said.

“And we don’t need it!”

The ninjas jumped.

“It appears our plan to put distance between ourselves and Sammual Lawrence did not succeed,” Zane noticed worriedly.

“Don’t beat yourselves up,” Alice said, raising her hand in sympathy. “It’s not hard to find a person with so much ink around to look through.” Alice stood next to Sammy at the doorway, just a bit light of heart with the new ability to stand directly in front of a stranger without any fear.

“It’s two against six!” Lloyd shouted, readying himself to leap down from the dead ride.

“Or one against three,” Sammy added helpfully.

“Right,” Alice said pointedly, resisting the urge to roll her eyes. “But no, ‘ninja’, we’re not here to fight you,” she said, adjusting and folding her hands.

“Wait, what?” Sammy asked, looking back at her past his mask. She gave him a meaningful look he didn’t know how to read, then turned back to the ninja.

“The ink demon that runs this place made an oversight. He gave us power to match yours through the ink I believe I mentioned.”

The ninjas shifted apprehensively.

“Oh calm down,” Alice scoffed. “I am not Bendy’s puppet, and plan to use the opportunity to break out of this prison. Whatever you’ve come into this place to do, I just trust you won’t get in our way.” She nodded to show that’s all she had to say, and stepped back through the exit. She may have locked the ninjas behind her on another day, but left the door open. Sammy twisted around to catch up with her, still a few seconds behind.

“Su- Alice!” he exclaimed, ink bubbling on his shoulders like a bristeling dog. “We don’t dare disobey a direct order- abuse such a gift!”

Alice stopped walking away and turned back to him. Her remaining colored eye lost it’s authoritative glare, filling with sadness against her will. Her glance went between Sammy and the ninja, but her feet stayed pointed in Sammy’s direction and on the path to find a way out. Before she could choose what to say, shadows filled the room.

“It’s too late!” Sammy shouted, panic on the verge of tears filling his voice.

“Too late for what?” Kai shouted back, looking around frantically by the light of his fire. But with the way the ink took hold of Sammy when he was afraid, Alice wouldn’t be surprised if he hadn’t even heard the boy.

Sensing the ink surge behind their backs, Alice grabbed his hand and dashed back into the room, toward the ninja. They braced for attack, but she kept running.

“Hide if you value your lives in the slightest!” she shouted over her shoulder, doing her best to warn the unsuspecting children.

A rumbling combined with the sound of raspy breathing and liquid rushing grew near. The ninja’s eyes widened and they readied to force back the sudden, raging flood of ink, but their defenses were shattered in the rush of blackness. The fluent team was battered and shoved against rubble and walls, desperately trying to keep breathing in a storm of ink and screaming, much of which none of them could recognize.

**_“Nya!”_ **

**_“Jay!”_ **

**_“Cole!”_ **

**_“Sammy!”_ **

Everyone grabbed onto anything or anyone they could find before it was all blacked out.

“Gah! Nya? Lloyd? Zane? Cole?!” Jay shouted, scrambling out of the ink. Why did he have to have lighting powers? They can’t pull people out of things, they can just zap and charge water and-

“Over- here!” Nya gasped. She and the rest of Jay’s brothers were pulling themselves out, already shaking and (with Nya’s help) washing off the ink.

“Ew, gross!” Kai groaned at the messy state, but was otherwise unhurt. Zane twitched a bit, then shook out a flurry of ice, purging the ink in his system.

“That was uncalculated…” he mumbled dizzily.

“What happened?” Lloyd asked.

“And where are we?” Cole added.

“It appears we were washed away in a flood on ink,” Zane answered.

“Yeah, we knew that. I meant in the ‘Who was that woman and where did the two of them go?” Kai said.


	3. Chapter 3

“Sammy? Blast,” Alice muttered. She wasn’t bothered at losing track of the ninja (as if this day wasn’t shattering enough of her usual policies), but she still needed Sammy for this plan to work at all. Drat that demon and his games. But although she was hardly unscathed, she was relieved the ink demon had released a flood. With his confidence in his ability to kill, they might still be able to do this behind his jagged back.

“Sammy!” she exclaimed, relived. She found him sitting on his knees in front of one of the cardboard cutouts, holding his mask in his hands. She stopped. She hadn’t seen him take off the mask in years, and he never did it on purpose. He acted so dependent on it, but looked calm now. Well, calm wasn’t the perfect word. His head was bowed in defeat, and his shoulders shuddered crookedly, in something close to crying without fully functional eyes.

“Sammy?”

She sat stiffly on her knees next to him when he didn’t reply. She wanted to tell him to pull himself together- but he had to be himself when it happened.

“Why didn’t you tell me you planned…?” Sammy asked, not sounding quite like the ink creature nor the man she had known.

“Would you have listened?” she snapped, then immediately regretted it.

“How will I be set free now…?” he asked, hiding his face in his hands as despair filled his voice.

“Sammy, don’t you understand?” Alice asked, trying to get him to turn back to her. “You can set yourself free now. With your followers or coming back for them later, we can find and break open a way out now! We can do it ourselves!”

“We?” he asked sharply, standing up. Alice recoiled. She hated these moments, whether the stress was making him snap or the ink was getting into his head with a violent command. “Even if I would abandon the demon’s path, you just jumped into it all and dragged me along! Why do you always-'' he stammered, losing the connection with his voice again. Underneath his body language which shuddered without any clear movement like a small earthquake, she sensed the deeper accusation.

“Sammy, listen to me,” Alice said quietly, opening her hands to show she had nothing left to hide, hoping dearly he could understand her. “You need to believe I’ve let… my replacement go. I’ve kept from the ink for a long time. Maybe you're right,” she sighed. “Heaven knows neither of us have made the best decisions here.” She flexed her fingers, raising a smooth bubble of ink on the floor. Both their tainted reflections showed on its warped surface. “But this is our big chance. We can fight back against all the destruction and madness. It could be for the better or the worse, but I truly believe it will be for the better. We can be free.”

“You can,” he said, his voice darker than any of his spells from being human.

“Sammy…?”

“I can’t.”

“Sammy, that's not tr-”

“I can’t, Susie!” he shouted, ink bubbling angrily underneath his feat. It rose sharply, separating them. When it fell, splattering onto her face, a spill of ink against a break in the wall was the only clue of where Sammy had disappeared to.

Alice stared over the shiny sphere of ink, dark tears threatening her eyes. She knew the ink demon put them in something of a net with the ink, but at least that meant the two of them were able to communicate again. Now that connection was snapped.

The ink blob jumped and squirmed in her grip, then plummeted to the floor. The droplets that burst from the impact soaked into her shoes, cold and clinging and unfeeling. They stained.


	4. Chapter 4

The ninja had started in a new wing, discussing a new plan with the new information. Without warning, tentacles of ink pulled apart a boarded up door, and Alice was back with a dark, stoic look on her face. Their reactions were mixed.

“Thanks for your help back there,” Lloyd said coldly, still not trusting her even as she put her hands up in a non-threatening gesture.

“What happened to Samual?” Zane asked.

“He left,” she answered, her gaze flickering down for a moment then righting itself. She cleared her throat, wanting to change subject promptly.

“About that, ninja, I undoubtedly need more than two hands for ascending from this place. And I know you could use the guidance. Unless you plan to waste time wandering in the open.”

“And if we don’t want your help?” Lloyd asked.

“Then I’ll follow you through the ink and watch you wander. But I won’t go on with my back exposed.”

There was a pause, and Alice folded her arms, waiting.

“Cole! Buy us some time!” Lloyd whispered, motioning the ninja to huddle.

“We me?” he whisper-shouted back.

“You know about ghosts!”

“Well so do you!”

“Just go!”

Cole was nudged forward as the ninjas huddled together. He froze, lost his balance, and landed on one foot awkwardly.

“Ow.”

Alice didn’t react, just examined the ninja’s huddle, calculating.

“So… ghosts, huh?” Cole asked, way too caught off guard. Lloyd would owe him for this.

Alice glanced back at Cole, having to tilt her whole head because the side facing him was ruined visually and practically.

“The studio doesn’t have any ghosts. We stay alive in different forms through a cycle or sorts,” she explained flatly.

The ninja didn’t overhear the following exchange, with their heads together. 

“I don’t like this,” Lloyd whispered, “What happened to the other guy?”

“I wonder if he got hurt,” Nya said. “I think we should let her tag along. Something happened to Mr. Lawrence, and she shouldn't be alone through it.”

“You make it sound like he died,” Jay noticed worriedly. Nya shrugged one shoulder, raising Jay’s arm looped protectively around her.

“I think they’re together. Or were.”

“What?” Kai and Jay asked together.

“Girls notice these things about each other,” she replied dryly.

“If it’s true, she would be in a time of emotional crisis,” Zane said.

“Wouldn't that make her… less trustworthy…?” Jay asked uncertainly.

“We are here to help these people, trustworthy or not,” Lloyd argued.

“I’m just saying! it looks like she doesn’t have a lot to lose. Except maybe the other side of her face.”

“Jay,” Nya scolded.

“What?”

“I think that’s why we should help her,” Lloyd said, “And let her help, it's not like we couldn't use it. Agreed?”

They agreed with varied levels of certainty.

They broke the circle and turned back to Cole and Alice. The words ‘ink demon,’ made them quick to jump back into the  
conversation.

“He runs this place, and he’s the one who tried to kill us in the flood,” Alice explained grimly. “He has all the power the creator used to have, and uses it to kill anything he touches. Don’t ask me why.”

Cole looked back at them and shrugged stiffly, keeping his distance from Alice.

“Wasn’t… the ink demon the one you said gave you and Sammy, uh, the ink powers?” Lloyd asked, shrugging apologetically in Cole’s direction.

“Yes,” Alice nodded. “It seems he believed we’d be his toy soldiers. Well, he certainly believed Sammy would be willing,” she said coldly, her feet turning away, toward an inky break in the wall.

“What happened to him? Sammy, I mean,” Nya asked tenderly.

“He’s… loyal to the ink demon. He didn’t want to stray from his path by breaking himself free.” She said. There was more to it, but it wasn’t anything to share with the ninja.

Kai was about to explain the heavier question in the question, but Zane put a hand over his mouth.

“With all due respect, Ma’am,” he said quickly, “we were wondering if you could explain how he got to where he is mentally, so we can better understand what will need to be done in the long run.”

“We don’t always get problems we can’t punch,” Kai added in explanation.

“And those don’t always end well,” Lloyd said. “My name’s Lloyd, by the way.”

The ninjas introduced themselves in turn. Alice nodded, but hesitated giving her own same, her human name. Sammy had already said it in front of ninja anyway, but it felt like… a decision of great importance. She just closed her eyes thoughtfully for a second and skipped it over.

“The ink demon can still hear through any of the ink, so we’ll need to be proactive, find and confront him to get to the only exit that hasn’t been destroyed.” She motioned the ninja to follow and turned into a darker hallway. “I’ll explain on the way. Try not to draw too much attention to ourselves.” They followed, careful to stay quiet.

“Before any of us were like this, we were employees at this studio,” Alice explained. “I was a voice actress and Sammy was the music director and composer.” Nya’s eyebrows raised at the mention of Sammy, but Alice kept her back to them, not giving anymore hints with her face than with her controlled voice. “There’s plenty I could say about those years, but the point is a pipe burst over Sammy’s head one day and almost killed him. It wasn't all at once, but the ink had gotten into his mind. I’ve been in his place before. A buzzing, screaming well of voices, until you don’t know what thoughts and actions are your own. It makes us easier to control, like a hive mind, fueled by rage and terror. The ink demon needs to keep us mindlessly docile or aggressive. I’ve been trying to stay above it, by any means necessary,” she said, the control in her voice raising with hardness. “Of course, that hasn’t worked out perfectly.”

A creak and groan rose from the floorboards. Half the ninja stopped right away, and the rest stopped when Alice did. A dripping, inky mass with two sunken eyes, a construction helmet, and a loosely-hanging jaw rose from the floor. In a low raspy voice only Alice could understand, it spoke to them, raising one shaky finger and pointing them to turn back.

“Understood, Lacie,” Alice nodded, pulling a blob of ink up to arm’s level. “Stand down.”

The creature stared wordlessly, then dissolved.

“Would you believe she's one of the better ones?” Alice asked monotonously, unceremoniously dropping the ink and continuing without waiting for a reply.

The ninja tried to discuss again what they’d seen, but the walls of the studio had a silencing, smothering air around them. Alice was feeling it herself. A tightness in her chest, a rhythmic, ragged breathing inside her head. She might be able to manipulate the ink in a more literal way than ever before, but that didn’t mean it didn’t still have a mind of its own. They walked in silence, except for groaning footsteps, until reaching the ground floor it had started it.

Alice’s focused, hunting posture suddenly bolted up straight. Without looking back at them, she pushed the ninjas down with the ink, under a window overlooking another hallway.

Speak of the devil. Don’t make a sound, she shaped out on the walls.

A huge, lurking figure of ink and a frozen smile lurched past, shadows crawling along the walls around him, like the light wasn’t strong enough to fight back. Lloyd’s mind went back to fighting his father as the giant monster on top of the tower. His elemental powers had negated the darkness that day and they could do it again.

Lloyd shattered the glass by leaping into a spin and hurled a ball of energy at the ink demon’s back.

“No!” Alice shrieked. “Getting him angry will- only-...” Her voice choked out in terror. They had arrived at the ink demon’s lair in good time, but lost the element of surprise. Alice felt the ink harden around her joints, intimidating her to stay still as the ink demon stopped, slowly turned. 

"Oh, you're still alive..." he grumbled, which turned into a low, laughing growl as his body began to change shape. It was one of the few stubborn mysteries Alice had never unraveled. All she knew was what he wanted her to know- that it could keep even the most hopeful characters in line.

One hand swelled, then the other, tearing his glove to pieces. He covered his crescent moon-shaped horns in both hands as his body contorted and rose. His permanent smile finally broke apart, revealing a set of teeth long enough to pierce right through someone’s middle.

Alice clenched her fists, forcing herself to meet his non-existent eyes. Her face tingled and her voice shook, but she spoke.

“We won’t be your puppets any longer, you devil.” She turned to the ninja, pointing into the heart of the ink demon’s lair. “Get inside!” she shouted. It was running into danger, but it was their only chance, and a demon was blocking the only retreat. The Ink demon roared, matching their battle cry.

She raised the moat of ink around the giant machine with great effort. She gritted her teeth to keep her focus as her head pounded with the force of the weight and noise of the black. The ninjas leapt into flashes of color, pushing back against the shadows. The ink demon reared back, reaching for ink to pin and smother them, but Alice wrenched it out of his grasp. The ink demon stumbled, then lashed a huge claw in her direction. Ink splattered across the room as he obliterated the ink shield she raised reflexively. Before it all hit the ground, the ink demon pulled the liquid against gravity, pushing them all back like fish in a net, forcing them deeper into the ink demon’s territory and throwing Alice off-balance.

The ninja threw everything they had at the attack, trying to buy Alice time to reclaim the arena. Unfortunately, she was discovering firsthand why the ink demon hated damage to the ink or his cutouts. Intense coldness, burning, and shrieking clawed through her nerves with the lashing the ink was taking from both sides. Alice stumbled on her heels, slipping as the slick ink pulled out from under her. Her head beat hard against the dark, metal floor and black spots flashed over the swirling ink in front of her eyes.

The hurricane of colors and noise continued to spin as the ninja tried to keep the ink demon at bay. It was quickly fading together into a steady scream, no matter how Alice scrambled to pick one thing from another.

But it stopped for a brief moment- Slowing down, softening into the kind of ignorable bustle she remembered from when she was still human. It was only a matter of time before the ink took that away too, before she was reduced to an insane, monstrous version of herself and the character she loved…

A melody trickled through the noise. Well, not truly a melody, but the cluster of notes had the same spirit and soul it did when Alice Angel lit up the screens. Her head started to pull back together with gentle pressure around it.

“Alice? Come on, talk to me,'' Sammy said, holding her head to keep her from drowning in the shallow puddle of ink.

“Sammy?” she asked, sitting up. He gently helped her pull further from the fighting.

“Why are you here? How are you here?” she asked, gripping his arm tightly with anger and dizziness.

“I had to go somewhere,” he replied, rubbing his face and covering one eye like he used to on the rare occasions he was feeling lost. Alice took a deep breath, letting herself pick shapes out of the ink, to ask to see the inside of Sammy’s thoughts.

It was too blurry to make out any words, just a soft feeling of loneliness and regret that could’ve been her own for all she knew.

Things were coming into focus, and they looked back at the ink demon, who was steadily getting the upper hand in the fight. Alice stood up shakily, wiping ink off her face.

“Whether you're with me or not, I’m not acting from the sidelines anymore.” She turned and threw a shield of ink between the ninja and the ink demon, throwing the latter off balance. She was rewarded with another wave of ink, forcing all of them deeper into the machine, soaking away any silence, any color, and any light. Before it could dissolve her completely, she screamed for everyone to split up- FIND THE END!

Kai got the wind knocked out of him hitting the floor, but scrambled back to his feet. He had been thrown into another room, with a big, puffed chair on top of a bunch of rubble, with a reel in the seat.

“Oh man.. Guys! Guys, I got something!” The demon charged past him at breakneck speed, almost trampling but not noticing Kai at all. Kai dashed through the halls, dwarfed by the towering ceilings and encased ink creatures.

“Jay! We gotta find a projector!” he said, holding tight to the fragile reel.

“What? What would a projector do at a time like this?!” he exclaimed, hugging the walls to keep out of the demon’s ramaging path.

“Call it a hunch! We need to stay together!” Jay and Kai sprinted around the maze, finding the others while narrowly staying out of the ink demon’s way. Together, they isolated four switches and unlocked another room. Just as Sammy and Alice crossed Kai’s mind, he saw the two jump out of ink puddles for air, tightly grasping hands to stay together.

“LOOK OUT!” Kai shouted, too far away to defend with fire in time.

Sammy and Alice whipped around in unison and raised a wall of ink bigger than either of them could make on their own. The ink demon crashed against it, giving them the chance to get to the ninja’s side.

“Come on!” Lloyd shouted, leading everyone to the next room, in blind hope they would find a projector. Their hearts clenched and stomachs dropped when they found themselves in a dead end. They leapt to get their backs to the walls as the ink demon caught up with them. He stopped in the doorway, slowly looking around with a growing smile, deciding who to attack first.

“I’m Alice Angel, you beast!” Alice shouted, stamping her heel next to a column of swirling ink, demanding his focus. Cole flinched as the ink demon turned toward her. But he didn’t charge right away. Running into the ink wall had cleared his tunnel vision.

“You’d just love me to fall for that kind of a trick,” he laughed in a low snarl of a voice. Alice kept her gaze steady, but stepped slightly behind the column for protection. “I’ve seen inside each of your heads,” the demon continued. “I know exactly what makes you scared, what makes you weak…” The ink demon really did have a resemblance to his creator. He adjusted his hunched stance casually, tossing a theatrical glance back at the ninja. “It’s really not fair of you to team up with these ninja, when they don’t know what you’ve done.”

Zane shot ice against the room, not hurting anyone, but landing a chill on the back on the ink demon’s head. “Explain yourself!” he ordered.

“Easy,” the ink demon cackled. “Alice has replaced her own heart with the hearts she gleaned, and it’s the same story with Sammy's head…”

Behind one of four glass pillars of ink, Alice and Sammy’s eyes swelled with terror. The ink tore through the valves in their hearts, spilling them into the open to be devoured. Alice blinked hard, covering the warped side of her with her hands in shame. Sammy shook, grasping his mask like a life preserve. Only confusion went over the ninja’s faces as the ink demon laughed. He stared with a cruel, settled smile and waited for the ninja’s reaction, placing the room in a screaming silence.

“Don’t you think it’s funny that none of this was really hard until we got split up?” Jay asked.

Confusion rattled the ink demon’s steady posture.

“Really funny,” Nya agreed, nodding smoothly along. “But we really should expect it by now.”

Sammy and Alice both raised their eyes from the darkness threatening to tear the floor out from under them, to the team of unrelated siblings.

“We’re not letting distrust and rage destroy what we know,” Lloyd explained, his conviction forming the green energy between his hands, melting off the ink stains. “Even when old friends and family get hurt, or lost, or make bad choices-”

“Ninja never quit!” they said in perfect unison. Glances met knowingly at the speed of light, leaving the ink demon just confused.

Without the ink demon’s assistance, the seven shattered the columns of ink with ink to elemental magic to a good old fashioned kick. The last gate threw open.

Lloyd spun and flew to the projector, and Kai threw the reel to him, all far faster than the ink demon could run. With a soft but shattering click, the reel started to play.

Alice and Sammy both tightened their grip on the other’s hand, and the ninja froze in anticipation. The ink demon tried to shout, but it turned into a feral, untamed roar. He cowered away from the screens around them, then blindly tried to attack anyone he could. A crashing, cracking, tearing sound rang through the air as the ink demon’s jagged shoulders began to shake madly. The floor shook as the demon fell, thrashing all the while. The screen froze as the reel came to an end, and light tore across the throne. Lloyd threw his power into the portal, opening it wide enough to crawl through.

“Jay!” he shouted, motioning to the nearest ninja while the ink demon was distracted, fighting to take back control of his body. Jay sprang toward the opening, but hit right back off. He exclaimed in panic then shot lighting at the portal. It widened again by a few inches, this time with a bit of color visible past the blinding white. The portal allowed Jay and Llyod through, where they urged the rest forward with their own magic. The ink demon roared and launched into the ninja’s path. Forced to lean back on his fragile legs, he pulled back a claw to break them all swiftly in half.

A wall of ink surged up to protect them. When it thinned into bars that kept the ink demon out, the ninja could see Alice furiously beating Bendy wearever she could reach, her hands wrapped protectively in hardened ink. The barrier Sammy was holding up wavered, signaling the ninja back into action. Alice kicked off Bendy’s back, letting the ninja advance. As the demon was zapped and bashed against rocks and shards of ice from the other side, Nya shot water into the portal where it disappeared in the white light, earning her own way out. All the while Alice and Sammy were slowly getting closer to the portal and to freedom. As Cole and Zane got to safety, the ninja and the outside were completely visible, cheering Sammy and Alice on as they fought Bendy back. The constant flow of ink was recovering Bendy’s damage from the reel, and while he was still outnumbered, he was certainly in his element.

“Come on ninja, everything we got!” Kai shouted. Ice, water, fire, lighting, earth, and green light flowed past the portal as one, throwing Bendy into the air and sending him crashing down.

For the first time in thirty years, Alice’s heart was bright and she was light on her feet thanks to someone’s help. Her aim was true as she shot a line of ink into the portal, reflecting its light out like a halo’s aura. She didn’t let go of Sammy’s hand as her feet left the ground, and she fell for the last time, finally out of the blasted studio.

She gasped in pain as her arm pulled suddenly in it’s socket. She knew she was out of the studio by the very touch of thei air, but it was muffled and stained- she knew something was wrong before looking back at her hand in Sammy’s. It shook with effort to keep holding on, and Alice quickly twisted around to double her grip. Nya grabbed on to help, but for all they tried to pull him through the portal by force, it only sent pain through both of them. But Sammy couldn’t reach out and throw his own magic into the portal- he could barely even move with the ink demon’s giant claw wrapped around arm and middle.

“Help!” Sammy shouted, pained tears burning when his eyes should’ve been. He had pulled off his mask when he jumped but was racked with pain as he did, burning the most harshly where the ink demon pulled him back. The ninja tried to strike back at the ink demon but there was little opening in the portal with Alice and Sammy in between. “Help…” he cried, his voice drowning as ink from the demon crawled up his neck, into his mouth and nose. Alice felt the ink inside her pull her back at the same time. It ripped through her mind, shredding and drowning her fragmented thoughts and letting the rest of her flood. She could just feel the rest of the ninja trying to help keep her from slipping back inside by the pull of the demon, but them and the white light on their side of the portal was falling away like the droplets of ink had, leaving nothing but a fall back into darkness in front of her.

Susie could hear the screaming. Sammy could tell she could, by the static that was filling her eyes, even as things started to break down into blackness.

“You forgot you can't see without me…” the ink demon snarled, through the ink or out loud- Sammy didn’t know. His grip was too strong, and tightening, so Sammy couldn't breathe unless he let go of Alice’s hand and was pulled completely back- like he had been for so many years- The ink was coursing through both of them, crawling over their skin, coaxing, whispering, scratching, clawing for their return. But it cowered away from their hands, still in the light of the portal, holding onto one another for life.

Alice shouted Sammy’s name, hearing his thoughts in her own mind. She thought she had shouted, but she couldn't hear it.

She found herself alone, floating in the noise, everything swirling and dissolving together until she didn’t know which thoughts were her own.

I’ve been a fool, I should never have defied the ink demon…

It’s gone, everything is gone, everyone is gone-

I want to go home!

Let me go!

Please!

LET US GO!

But something stuck out in the void. Her hand was above the flood, holding onto a piece of driftwood, even if her head was submerged. Her body was dissolving into the noise, but she found her fingers and wrist and pulled in past the current. She counted all four- five fingers firmly in her mind. They were there, they existed. And something was between them.

Sammy!

He didn’t know what he said back. It sounded like her name.

“I love you,” she said stubbornly, definitely, telling herself it was not ink, but air filling her mouth and lungs. A pinprick of light, peace, stillness, music shone in the buzzing well, and she could hold onto it. “I’m not asking you to be who you were,” she said, forcing herself to breathe even as the haunting images, the crying, the sleepless nights filled her lungs- “-Or even to trust me! Just- work with me. Like we did. To… To do what we’ve been trying to do, even in different ways.”

They could see each other, but they couldn’t reach out with the force of the current, the ninja pulling with everything they had on one side and the demon on the other.

Sammy cried soundlessly in pain as the ink demon tightened his grip and pulled himself closer to the portal. Sammy’s useless eyes widened as he saw the demon reaching to scratch back Susie where she was holding onto Sammy’s hand, her eyes squeezed shut in pain…

“Set them free!” one, or both, or neither of them shouted. With no room for another option in their flooding lungs, Sammy wrenched up the last of his courage and strength and struggled against his old master, painstakingly freeing his hand at the wrist. Fighting the racing currant, he reached his fingers into the ink. It jumped awake.

It could’ve only happened in the split second before the tug-of-war was decided, but Sammy was holding his breath, swimming blindly long enough to imagine his last chance had failed.

Don’t give up.

It was one clear note through the noise. Their song. Sammy raised one hand- he couldn’t tell which- without feeling it, and flicked the few drops of ink blindly up and out. The ink demon roared as his grip on Sammy shook and broke off, tossing the demon into his darkness below. Sammy fell into the portal, stunned by how hard Alice had been pulling back against the ink demon with him. It was incredible he hadn’t felt it before. They fell, the light filling their senses and erasing out the noise…

Sammy fell ungracefully on top of her, dizzy with confusion as the noise faded out. There wasn’t a floor beneath their feet, but neither of them were very bothered. Both of them kept their eyes closed, holding tightly to one another, waiting in peace for whatever came next. They floated in calm, cleansing nothingness for a moment, then the ache in their limbs slowly, gently returned as the ground found their feet. They stayed together, savoring the warmth even as birdsong and gentle breeze reached their ears again after thirty years.

“I love you.” They said it together, but not through the ink. The ink that stained Alice’s hands and covered Sammy completely was gone.

The ninja stared wide-eyed, hands over mouths and trying to withhold undignified happiness noises in some cases. Ink Alice and Sammy were gone, and in their place was a woman with a youthful spark in her eyes framed by rumpled golden hair and a man with suspenders and brown hair that was just long enough to tangle.

The two of them looked at each other. Shock, confusion, excitement, then came joy. Sammy Lawrence picked Susie Campbell up and spun her around, both laughing with clear, ink free tears streaming from their eyes.

“Are you okay?” Sammy asked when he set her down. Susie looked down at herself, a sad, tired smile on her face.

“I’m… not an angel anymore,” she said quietly.

Sammy just smiled and kissed her forehead. “Sure you are.”

Jay had tears in his eyes. “That could be us!” he whispered to Nya.

“Except I’m not trying to be an angel,” she replied, laughing anyway.

“You're my water angel! My snow angel!”

“That’s Zane’s thing!”

“And I am compatible with Pixal,” Zane added.

“You're my water ninja!” Jay tried again.

“True, but not a great pet name.”

Sammy and Susie had barely noticed the exchange, taking in their surroundings and remembering the feel of their human bodies, glancing back at each other and smiling like dorks all the time.

“Aww, the bad guys still have love in their lives!” Jay squeaked, to which Nya giggled and took his hand, and Lloyd said, “At this point, it shouldn't even be a surprise.”

Susie stepped away slightly, still holding Sammy’s hand, and looked around, reminding the ninja to do the same. There were a few “Oh!”s and Susie asked where they were.

“Welcome to our dojo!” Kai said, spreading out his arms proudly.

“This is yours?” Sammy asked.

“As well as our home,” Zane added helpfully. “It appears the portal of a door accepted our elemental signatures as directions.”

“Never thought I’d be glad to hear you use so many words again,” Cole said, smiling and shaking his head. “We’re not dead!” he exclaimed, throwing up his hands and letting the relief out. That earned a laugh among everyone.

Sammy and Susie exchanged glances as their smiles weakened, finally thinking clearly. Clearly, including what atrocities they had committed as ink creatures.

“I’m so sorry, ninja,” Susie said quietly, her shoulder and gaze sinking, feeling very out of place in their home.

“So am I, for the dustpan,” Sammy added, awkwardly running a hand through his hair.

“Hey, we survived, right?” Cole shrugged. Susie nodded, letting herself smile a little. That made Sammy smile. Everything in the fresh air could make him smile. He felt his heart beating clearly in his chest. He felt alive enough to start over. And to puzzle out some of the things that had happened in the past thirty, forty years.

“And I never thought I’d be glad the ink demon managed to touch me,” Susie added, twirling a finger through her hair, finally with individual hairs and not one hair-shaped growth. “I suppose it really was teamwork that made all the difference.” She shook her head and rubbed her face. “I can't believe i said that...” she groaned. She could sing flowery, but wasn’t so great speaking it.

Sammy chuckled, rubbing his thumb on her hand. “We must have a lot to catch up on,” he guessed, looking around again.

“You didn’t have video games thirty years ago, did you?” Jay asked, leaning toward them eagerly.

“And what about pizza?” Kai added, brightening.

“Or cake?” Cole asked, finally giving up on keeping his distance.

“Of course we had cake,” Sammy replied with a smile. “I never forgot it.”

“But what about video games?” Jay repeated.

“If it has to do with animation, I’ll pass,” Susie grimaced.

“They haven’t heard of video games!” Jay whisper-shouted. “Come on, I’m showing you right now!” he said, zipping to the house and excitedly motioning them to follow.

“Not like they have family to get to or things to wrap up in the studio!” Nya called sarcastically after him.

“They need to know what world they’re bringing themselves into!” Jay called back, already inside.

“We will have to inevitably return to help the others,” Zane noted, casually starting inside and welcoming them in as well.

“None of them stay dead for long,” Sammy said darkly.

Susie squeezed his hand. “So we’ll have all the time we need to bring them back.”

And with that, they went inside to start getting to know their world all over again, grateful that the ink demon (or, as they would later consider, Joey) had evened the odds.


End file.
